KCBS In Depth: Exploring Water Solutions For California’s Drought

Land is exposed by the extremely low water level of Lake Kaweah on February 5, 2014 near Visalia, California. (David McNew/Getty Images)

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — Is our current drought in California part of a natural weather pattern, an aberration, or climate change?

This week, KCBS In Depth cohosts Jan McMillan and Ed Cavagnaro posed this question to Dr. Peter Gleick, a globally recognized scientist who is an expert in water and climate issues.

“The current drought is bad. It’s part of our natural cycle of droughts but it’s certainly worsened by climate change that we know humans are causing,” he said.

Gleick is also the president of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, an independent, non-governmental organization working on water and sustainability solutions that also explores the links between these challenges and economic and social justice issues.

KCBS In Depth also asks Dr. Gleick about Proposition 1—the water bond negotiated by Gov. Jerry Brown this summer—and the details that it entails.

Glieck said we need to fix the Delta, which supplies water from Northern to Southern California but that we also have to live within the system.

“In the end, this isn’t a find-more-supply-kind of a problem. It’s to figure out how to manage and demand and use the water we already have more effectively,” he said.